Before the Darkness (Refuge Inc.) (14 page)

that would have been important and useful was

gone. All that was left were wilting lowers in

vases, spilt chocolates and the heart shaped

boxes they came from, greeting cards, balloons

and various other useless items. He entered and

carefully made his way through the litter to the

register. On the wall behind the register were a

few individual packages of generic aspirin and

cough lozenges. He opened a pack of aspirin and

swallowed the two white pills whole. Then stuck

what was left in his backpack. He needed to visit

the real pharmacy to find some antibiotics.

He continued to look around the hospital

for the main pharmacy. Once he found it—

security door off of its hinges, and ransacked

worse than the gift shop—his heart sank. There

were very few bottles, vials and syringes still left

in the small room but he had no idea where to

start. He walked into the room with shelves

knocked to their sides and plastic containers

laying everywhere, and picked up a bottle

containing a clear liquid. He read the label and

shook his head in frustration. What was

Terbutaline? He had no idea if he held a miracle

in his hand or a disease, much less how to

administer it and the dosage. He was lost. He

added the bottle to his growing collection of

medicine in his backpack. He picked up a few

other bottles and packaged pre illed syringes,

and after reading the label he stuffed them in his

pack too.

He looked for a word ending in 'cillin, but

had no luck. Even if he did hit the jackpot and

found some penicillin he wouldn't know how to

use it to help Elliot, afraid he would end up

hurting him instead. Maybe the medicine he

collected would come in handy later somehow,

maybe not. Either way he knew medicine was

too precious in situations like these to just leave

it behind.

He made it back to Elliot who slept on the

hospital bed. Titan had found a spot to curl up in

towards the corner of the massive room and lay

there silently as if respecting Elliot's slumber.

Despite the way Elliot's leg looked, he seemed

rather peaceful, comfortable and relaxed. Adam

wanted to give him some of the aspirin he'd

found but he didn't want to interrupt his sleep.

Instead he stood beside the bed and slowly,

gingerly swept the back of his ingertips over

Elliot's eyebrow then again across the bruise on

his lip. Taking on the caretaker role was natural

to Adam and it felt good. Especially when he

knew the person he was taking care of would do

the same for him. Realizing that having someone

by his side during a terrible life changing

tragedy was all that it took for him to honor his

role. And looking down at Elliot, while he

relaxed in a welcomed slumber, not only

brought memories of Jena to mind but to heart.

Elliot was everything Jena was not;

supportive, open minded, tender and most

importantly Elliot was still by his side. It made a

huge difference in Adam's outlook knowing he

was not alone. And maybe that was all Elliot

needed too. He was thankful to have found

Elliot.

He brushed his inger across Elliot's

temple, physically appreciating the man by his

side. That's when Elliot opened his eyes. First

the lids luttered like two dark moths but then

they slowly opened.

Elliot smiled. "That feels nice."

Adam nodded and dropped his hand.

"Still feel like shit?"

"Tell me you found some morphine," he

said, sitting up on the bed. "I feel a little better. I

think I was really exhausted and just needed to

get away from that stink out there and get some

more sleep. But my leg is still killing me."

"Aspirin should help." Adam gave him

two pills and his bottle of water. "Couldn't ind

much medicine. Looks like someone got to it

long before me."

"This hospital is huge." Elliot glanced at

his bummed leg. "There's got to be medicine

somewhere."

"There's medicine I just don't know what

to do with it."

"Can't we look for some medical books or

something to tell us what to use and how to use

it?"

"We don't even know if your leg is really

infected or not. We're not doctors. What if we

make things worse?"

Elliot bashfully diverted eye contact and

his face reddened slightly. "It's nice to know you

care about me."

Funny, Adam felt the same way. "I'll go

see what I can ind. You rest, alright?" He

squeezed Elliot's shoulder and headed down a

different hall.

He stopped in the lobby where four

elevators were located. He contemplated

entering one and investigating the upper loors,

but knowing the top two loors were possibly

damaged and not knowing for sure if it was

worse than what it looked like from the outside,

not to mention the intermittent power, he

decided to take the stairs. No sense in doing

something stupid and possibly getting stuck in

the elevator or something similarly unfortunate.

Upon entering the second loor, ultra-

bright light looded him. The halls were too

quiet and an ominous feeling crept over him. He

didn't like the thought of being in a hospital

alone. And to add to the weird feeling, in the

distance he heard the repetitive beeping of a

monitor.

He followed the hall down until he saw a

brown rectangular sign hanging from the ceiling

that read: Intensive Care Unit. Beyond the sign

all the lights were dim, causing the possibly once

comfortable ambience to take on a menacing

aura.

He looked around what he considered

was the intensive care unit receptionist desk—a

huge horseshoe shaped counter—he searched

for anything of interest. He found some wooden

Popsicle stick things, some small alcohol pads

still in the foil, Band-Aids and—

The lights lickered; on, off, on and inally

they went out. He noticed the hallow sound of

the room as the air conditioner shut down and

the distant methodical beeping suddenly stop.

He had left the lash light downstairs with Elliot.

So he was left standing in an utterly dark room

alone, feeling exposed. But before the dark

began to seep in and take hold of his light or

ight instinct, the lights blinked back on. The

beeping continued and the sound of the air

conditioner kicking back on swirled around him.

He let out a slow exhale and—

A dark shape wisped by from of the

corner of his eye. It was fast enough for Adam

not to fully make out what it was when he

abruptly turned to catch it. He didn't hear

anything other than the faint sound of that

damn monitor beeping in the distance.

"Hey!" he called out. Backing away from

the desk and moving slowly in the direction of

the shadowy wisp. "Anyone there? Elliot, is that

you?"

He moved slowly, quietly trying to engage

all of his senses at once. He struggled to hear

footsteps or something to give him the idea he

wasn't going out of his mind and seeing things.

Then he began rummaging through the

possibilities. Titan couldn't have followed him,

the doors were closed. Could other stray dogs

or animals get inside the hospital somehow? Or

… were there people still inside?

His internal questions were answered as

soon as he turned a corner and saw a person,

an elderly woman, sitting on the hospital bed in

one of the darkened rooms. The monitor beside

her bed glowed with green words, numbers and

lines jumping around the screen and changing

as the seconds went by. The woman herself

looked pale, frail and a little uneasy.

Adam put his hands up as if he'd just

been caught by a police of icer doing something

illegal. "Don't be scared. I'm just looking for

medicine for my friend. He's downstairs. He's

hurt. And… I didn't think I would ind anybody

here. Didn't think anybody else was alive." He

chuckled nervously. "You okay? You need help?"

When the woman didn't answer he

added, "Me and my friend thought we were the

only ones alive. This is great!" The woman just

stared, unmoving. "Are…are you okay? Are

you…alive?"

"Of course I'm alive, you idiot. Who are

you?" The woman's deep voice and no nonsense

tone startled him for a moment. He wasn't

expecting to hear a ragged and authoritative

voice come from such a little old lady.

"My name's Adam. Me and my friend

Elliot are looking—"

"So you're not here to rescue me?" She

glared, narrowing her beady eyes.

"Well… sure. But I'm not who you think I

am. I'm just a guy who happened to make it out

of this mess."

She shook her head. "Put your arms

down," the lady demanded. "You look like a fool.

Of course you're not here to rescue me. Look at

you. Look like Death has already snapped you

up." She coughed and wheezed. "So you're

looking for medicine for your friend? Where is

he?"

"Downstairs in the emergency room area.

He hurt his leg pretty bad. Are you okay? Have

you been left here alone?"

"No, I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay

with my husband."

Adam glanced around the room where

he saw an older man crouched in the corner.

"That's Harold," the woman said. "He's

the one you were calling out to a few minutes

ago. Poor bastard. He wouldn't be able to hear

you if you were screaming through a loud

horn."

The elderly man stood, holding on to the

wall as his weak looking knees knocked together

attempting to bare the weight of his delicate

frame. "That's not true, Edna. I can hear just

ine." The wrinkles around his mouth deepened

in what looked like a scowl. "I didn't want to

speak up, that's all."

"Anyway," the woman continued. "You

don't happen to have a cigarette, do you?"

"Uh, no. Sorry." Adam shook his head.

"No cigarette? Well, not much medicine

here, so looks like we're both shit out of luck."

Harold chuckled as he slowly made his

way to her bed to sit on the edge. "She's been

hankering for a cigarette since the folks here up

and left. I told her if she wanted a cigarette she

irst had to get somewhere safe. It's not safe

here. Backup lights and such keep going on and

off. One of these times they're not coming back

on."

"I wasn't leaving my husband no matter

what the damn lights are doing, you dumb fool."

She reached behind her and threw a pillow at

Harold.

Adam's eyebrows pulled together. "I

th o u g h t
he
was your husband," he said,

referring to Harold.

"This poor fool? He's not my husband.

My husband's over there. Across the hall. I

didn't dare leave him behind, and Harold

wouldn't leave me."

Harold smacked his lips together, wetting

the shriveled skin. "Someone had to take care of

you, Edna."

Adam sensed some sort of love triangle

but didn't question it. Instead he explained, "We

were looking for other people. If we ind refuge

you all have to come with us."

"There's no one out there?" Harold

asked.

"Everyone's gone. But I think there might

be a refuge of people and we're walking around

looking for them. We'll ind them and you can

come with us."

"I couldn't go with you if I wanted to, and

neither can they. Diabetes took my leg, Harold

has a bad hip and my husband's in a coma."

Harold put his bony hand up to interrupt.

"You said
refuge
like Refuge Inc.?"

"Yes!" Adam's eyes widened as hot

adrenaline pumped through his veins from the

excitement. "Refuge Inc. You know what that is?"

"Heard some fella on the radio saying

some nonsense about Refuge Inc. in the valley."

"Yeah, did he say where this place is?"

Adam asked.